no longer number one china has surpassed the u.s. when it comes to trade what does this mean for the u.s. economy and our standing in the world find out coming up. and a new york police officer is going to jail after raping a teacher but the law doesn't call us crime rate now the victim is fighting back a look at her case and the status of violence against women. senator menendez from new jersey is facing a host of allegations against him from bloggers claiming he's involved in a sex scandal to donor influence we'll take a look back at the case in ask two political donations buy you influence with lawmakers. it's tuesday february twelfth eight pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz wall and you're watching our t.v.

we begin today with the debate over gun control in the u.s. after the newtown school mass school nashua big there's a new call for change to strengthen u.s. gun laws but others feel like their second amendment rights are under attack are to correspond on a stasia churkin to heads to a pro-gun rally in albany new york to find out what gun advocates fear the most. the big apple business as usual. a few hours by train in. the empire state capital. as the united states remains divided when it comes to what to do with guns in this country after a recent series of shootings hundreds of anti-gun control protesters gathered outside the state capitol building in albany hear the toughest state law on firearms in the us after the sandy hook elementary school shooting the same fact was passed a month ago. and those whose guns are at stake are far from

happy do i look like a terrorist because it will look like a fanatic among other provisions the new state law bans weapon sales over the web restricts ammo magazines to seven bullets include stricter background checks and regular the certification. an e-mail and i without these three days were to be allowing the people to read it. these protesters say their second amendment right to bear arms under the u.s. constitution is being stepped on by legislators in need to smarten up and listen to get the garbage out in your ears and listen to what the people are saying gun owners believe politicians are looking for criminals in the wrong places i've been a gun owner for thirty years and now some of the guns i have in my locker are now illegal and never had a. parking ticket in my life there's nothing wrong with good while body systems had firearms as

a teen especially because this legislation is not going to stop hardened criminals obsessed with firearms it's not going to stop drug dealers it's not murderers it's not going to stop latest so what is the answer as the u.s. struggles to find common ground on where the gun debate should take the country next i think the fear punishment anyone does a crime with a gun. so if you're. going to. go. in that. well the position of these gun advocates is clear what remains to be seen is whether the us is the whole can ever come to a compromise and if they are to. well it's like the balance of economic power in the world is shifting china has surpassed the u.s. as the world's largest trading nation here the figures from last year recently released by the commerce department were talking about imports and exports in the

year two thousand and twelve well the us totaled three point eight two trillion dollars china was at three point eight seven trillion dollars this is now another sign of china's growing economic influence meanwhile in russia the central bank has gone on a golden shopping spree according to a recent report from bloomberg the country has added five hundred seventy metric tons of gold to its reserves in the past decade making at the top higher in the world so as other countries continue to strengthen their economic competitiveness is this a sign of a weakened u.s. dollar and if so what does this mean for the u.s. i was joined earlier by gerald celebs a publisher of the trends journal and i asked him how could china have a g.d.p. half that of the u.s. yet still have a larger trading volume china is in the business of business in the united states is in the business of war. china's energies and talents are going into making more at lower prices and exploiting it around the world that high

profits while america's energy are going into military industrial complex and making sophisticated weaponry waging wars so you can't do both it's either you know it's guns or bugger i didn't make that line so the united states has lost its competitive edge because of its military expansionism and secondly it's as though the whole nation is living with attention deficit disorder if they go back to nafta back in one nine hundred ninety four when it was first pushed through many people warned that this was going to happen it was that great sucking sound it wasn't only going to come from mexico it was going to come from around the world as us manufacturing ship is jobs overseas to cheap labor countries

to bring the product back and sell it at a markup so it's very easy to see and the consequences were predictable so it's no secret that the us a large chunk of the us budget goes toward military spending and a lot of people say that this is what's propping up the economy but you're saying this is doing the opposite. oh absolutely you know there's that there's that mentality that still exists you know america in the world you know the depression ended when world war two started and stupid people say things like we need a good war to get us out of this you know which of course is an oxymoron but the defense budget goes to a very small group of individuals it's a monopoly in that those industries when you look at the real numbers liz defense and defense related spending is over one point two trillion dollars. so we see china now number one the world's biggest trader and as

a result china is becoming a very important trading partner for many countries so at this rate will european countries be doing more trade with china than with other european countries well you know europe is not out of their depression by the way they don't call that a depression in spain with twenty six percent official unemployment same in greece very high numbers in portugal and italy you know they're not going to be doing a lot of trading with anybody because there's also the currency war problem as you're seeing the value of the euro going up that these they're exploiting products are going to be more expensive to buy and you see the same time with the new prime minister of japan abbay say to the bank of japan print more money buy more buy more government treasuries and and securities and lower the value of the yen so we could sell more products now where there is a term we mentioned kind of now the biggest trader russia now the biggest buyer and

there is this term it's coined the brics we're talking about brazil russia india china south africa. these are this group of emerging economies can we expect this group to continue to grow and if so how will that impact the global economy as as we know it. the problem with a number of the brick company countries is that there's also the export ing is show so if economies slow down you take brazil for example they're a big natural resource export or so of china's if the europeans and the americans aren't consuming that means brazil exports less product into china and of course india or russia of course also big a big natural resource export or and then you have slowdowns coming from india and china and south africa although they're now a brick nation again a very small player but natural resource exploiters so if the europeans and the

americans aren't buying the giant chinese aren't making the indians are making and the natural resource nations aren't export and so we see this continuing to slow down the brics aren't going to build it up and gerald always interesting to have your way and that was gerald celente a publisher of the trans journal and director of the transit research institute. now to a disturbing case coming out of new york a woman by the name of lydia cuomo is trying to redefine the word rape in the state last year she was waiting for her ride to school on her first day working as a second grade teacher and that's when a drunk off duty police officer pulled up point of a gun at her and then raped her repeatedly the perpetrator the man you see there former officer michael pena was convicted of forcing anal and oral sex on the victim but not rape and that's because in new york anal and oral rape is not considered rape under the law well pomo says she believes quote great is very rape

is rape and is using her experience to change the law in that state and she told the daily news quote i had witnesses i had d.n.a. i had my own testimony i had two cops i had them say we had made he sexually assaulted you and i didn't get the verdict i needed the first time and that just highlights to me the problem in the system earlier i was joined by independent journalist amber lyon i asked her just how is rape defined in the state of new york . the problem is that and new york state they only consider valid gentle penetration to be rape and in the case of libya situation she says that she was forced to commit oral sex and anal sex and considers that to be rape but according to the law that is just sexual assault so right now she's seeking legal justification because you can imagine the horror she's been through and now the courts aren't even recognizing that that's rape and she's got to try to explain to people that it's only being considered sexual assault and not rape in this case and

unfortunately was this is the case nationwide in almost every state so no you don't right on unique in this no only eight states recognize oral and anal sex as as being legally considered rape so what do they consider and those states just basil penetration and so i guess just a form of sexual assault or just not as serious of it and accurate accusation of rape and you can imagine these women they feel like any any type of assault to that extent especially and anal solve is rape but the courts aren't recognizing that and that's what lydia is desperately trying to change in new york for not only for herself in her own justification but for future victims of sexual assault can you talk about how this victim lydia cuomo is now trying to change its definition what exactly is she trying to do to make sure that no other woman faces the same ordeal after already being under these terrible circumstances well right now she's boldly and you can imagine it's very difficult for her to talk about this publicly but she

is coming forward showing her face showing her name explaining that this happened to her and she's headed to albany to try to pass the rape is rape bill which includes oral and anal assaults as being considered rape and she's really hoping that new york state will recognize that those are crimes as that make victims feel as horrifically as as what they consider to be rape at this point well just this afternoon the senate passed the violence against women act how does this bill address the. issue of violence against women well for decades the violence against women act has been key to not only offering support for victims of of assault sexual assaults and physical assaults but also offering women a way to to feel confident to come out and expose the perpetrators and escape created key programs nationwide to offer support for for these victims and according to advocates the violence against women act is responsible for reducing

rates of domestic violence against women also for increasing rates of women who feel competent enough to come forward and expose that they're being abused and so we do see support in the senate but not so much progress in the house what is the hold up there the problem all comes down to race that rape and sexual assaults that occur on indian reservations what happened is that the violence against women act says that tribal courts can charge non-native americans for assaulting or raping native americans and advocates say that this is needed legislation they say federal courts are far they need these tribal courts to really be able to prosecute these cases they also say that if you assault someone you deserve to be held responsible and republicans were saying that it's unconscious. non native americans in tribal court so there was a hold up there but it looks like those amendments are going to stay in the bill and that this will pass with enough republican support and democratic support to

eventually be signed by the president of course native americans domestic violence is a huge problem among that population so this bill does aim to help them but it looks like that's the problem there and if you talk to advocates native americans are two point five times more likely to be assaulted sexually assaulted then than average americans so this is a key issue that the violence against women act is focusing on this round and advocates say that's a victory enough that this is being discussed right so well with a victory today what do you think is in store for this victim in new york that trying to change the definition of rape there or do you think she'll be successful successful in her and over there i hope so far heard her team and supporters say that she is winning at this point because she's getting people talking about that i don't know if you knew that this those forms of assaults were not considered rape but before i started investigating this case i didn't know that read many states

across the united states don't consider anal rape in oral rape to be rape even though i'm battling it like that's majority of people i think would say yes that that is indeed rape and amber is winning in that case again by just getting people to talk about it and i think she feels successful absolutely amber great thank great to have you on here that was an ally and she's an independent journalists. we take a look now at the method to extract natural gas known as fracking and that's when gas companies come in and dig a well seldon's of feet down into shale rock formations from there the company injects millions of gallons of water sand and chemicals under extremely high pressure this causes the rock to crack or fracture that that releases natural gas to the surface for energy company. to collect over opponents of fracking believe it's a critical stuff for america's path to energy independence on the other side of the debate are groups concerned about the environmental and health risks that the

practice poses and today in california state lawmakers are holding a hearing about regulating the practice and to discuss the issue i was joined earlier by brendan or and california organizer for food and water watch and she began by explaining why oil executives are excited about the prospect of drilling in monterey california the industry's claiming that the billions in the oil that's leaking in. the moderate region but the fact of the matter is that we're years of oil and nationwide to clean that they're saying oil with this incredibly destructive grass fires now we're really only talking about a couple years seven years of oil putting off the scenes that we really make with the transition and it's. ok right now in california there's very little regulation when it comes to this practice fracking has

a it's gone this exemption from the clean water bill and so that means oil companies they don't have to reveal what chemicals are in the mixture that they're using for fracking so the public is kind of left in the dark why isn't fracking held to the same standards as other practices. was a question that's what we're asking and that's what the public is demanding as he talks of fracking was dented from every federal public health and environmental regulation in the two thousand and five energy assets called the cheney loophole and that means that the state level. stamped it. from all these all these regulations for me that their regulations are sacking every state a little bit different but they're also protected under three mean like bottle of coke they don't tell you the high it's very mixture of the toxic chemical of that they could be injected into the waters by. their worry that that is going to affect their business i guess and i know that you're saying that this is

a destructive practice. and there's some argument there as to just how destructive it is if it just needs more regulation of course we are talking about fifteen billion barrels of oil and there's a lot of talk about energy independence so would it be foolish to not tap into this wealth of energy right well as green that fracking has been raptured nationwide of being linked to severe water contamination air quality scientific studies oil and gas industry might try to. take the debate and use people but you know a recent university of colorado said he showed that people living there fracking sites where exposed to seven highest federal level an air flow that's just one concern that also causes severe health concerns that we're seeing. economic problems or people can't get loans for their homes or gauges that they're tracking

site. severe house to the stairs where doctors have to sign gag orders because they can't get the name of the chemicals without signing this gag order to treat their patients. when they realize it's safe to take those two toxic chemicals so do you think the brunt of that the solution is more regulation to make sure that if fracking is going to be done that it's going to be done safely and sustainably and in a way that ensures that it won't jeopardize the health of the public which is water watch for we believe that ban that there is cross united states records or even that there's no way to do that knowledge base and even if we do go behind and track every part of the united states today we're only talking about you know fifty years of natural gas maybe it's really well it's thirty when you look at the real estimates and seven years of oil and then we're going to be dealing with this

in the year. since the house and their policies so we need to make that transition now not to lay it in here in california or colleagues were bad i was rocking and we've held hostage bans awards for eons and states like new york new jersey crossness ok brenda we don't have too much time left but i want to ask you because we are seeing that natural gas is making up a huge percentage of the energy that we do use in the u.s. and that is only growing if not natural gas and what then of the alternative. well the fact is that we do rely on natural gas right now we do need that all we need to do is make the transition that even if we use fracking right now in thirty to fifty years we're going to be in a place where we have to make the transition to solar. technology after me and that and change our energy eat our energy future and so we can't in the process

for our how our water our state in our communities. thanks for weighing and that was brennan or in california organizer for food and water watch. also later on are it's he senator menendez from new jersey is facing a host of allegations from bloggers claiming he's involved in a sex scandal to donor influence we'll take a look at the case and ask do political donations buy you influence with lawmakers . i think. we just put a picture of me when i was like nine years old until she told the truth.

i'm a contestant i am a total get a friend that i would go grab because music was interesting. but he was kind of yesterday. i'm very proud of the role without you it's played. now to a story on capitol hill where new jersey senator robert menendez faces scrutiny over actions he may have taken to benefit a political donor but as is in hot water over his relationship with doctor and donor solomon mel again the doctor's office was recently raided by the f.b.i. over alleged medicare fraud now the senate ethics committee is investigating whether i'm an end has acted improperly to help his friend out on the net as took

an unreported trip or a few trips with milligan to the dominican republic on the doctor's private plane and there are allegations of minette is solicited prostitutes while in the dominican republic but there is more proof them an end as may have intervened on behalf of his friend regarding port security in the dominican republic stopping a donation from the u.s. government that would in danger milligan's business interests in the port well this will all be difficult to prove but it does prompt this question how often do political donors impact policy shock about this i was joined earlier by money and politics reporter russ choma from the center for responsive politics and i began by asking him how do donors influence policy. you know there's a wide range of people who donate money and most people in america don't donate very much money and the few people who do tend to donate quite a bit and it goes up very quickly and actually is up there among donors although

he's definitely not in the top tier but we figure he and his family have given out four hundred twenty six thousand dollars to candidates in the last twenty years or so in the last election he gave quite a bit and in addition is. gave about seven hundred thousand dollars to a super pac which benefited senate candidates among them a very successful iconic he runs over there and he has quite a few business interests in addition to the i can take in the security business that you mentioned there's also allegations that sentiment is may have intervened. on behalf of some medicare billing issues that malcolm was in his in his. firm were facing and so the allegations of them and as has e-mailed people in various agencies both in the security and on the medicare issue and that's like a sort of a typical charge about donors getting something from from senators and congressmen and it's sort of like the oldest scandal in washington it's

a story that repeats over and over and the problem is that there's a very fine line between what a congressman or senator can do legitimately because a lot of their job is making calls on behalf of constituents and businesses that are in there they're in a strange that this is kind of an old story it's something that's been happening for quite a while now do you would you say about this is a practice that is growing is it becoming more common or or how widespread is it exactly you know it's always tough to tell because you know we don't know when something like this it's not like he took a vote it's you know he was making e-mails and he was making phone calls and so unless there is some accusation and someone investigates it's often hard to see whether or not something was done and like i said it's very hard to sort of differentiate between what's a legitimate part of the job and what sort of crosses the line in this case there's a lot of accusations we cross the line and these kind of things happen and come up with the senate ethics committee or the house ethics committee. on a fairly regular basis there's a couple every year i suppose and and it's really rare that a serious action gets taken but it's not. rare for a congressman to be. accused of having poor judgment there's going to be my next

question twenty percent our elected leaders held accountable for this you know i probably not as much as they should be and i mean that's part of what we do is tracking who is giving them the money and once you know who's giving them the money then you can start looking at what the response was and i think one of the reasons that stands out is because he's not a constituent of sentiment as he's from florida and sentiment is from new jersey. but he is a donor but he's a donor and he's a fairly large donor on the other hand there are a lot of other people who give a lot of money to an end as to i mean we're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars for melody and you know you need ten more than ten million dollars to win a senate race these days so there's a lot of people who are asking probably for a lot of things so i was so hard to understand why. an elected leader would be influenced by a downer i mean there that's where they're getting a lot of their cash i guess especially the very wealthy donors so are there any safeguards in place to prevent this from happening i mean there are some and i mean that's that's changing as well but i mean you know the primary one is

a limit on contributions i mean a big part of giving a contribution in sort of getting getting somewhere was it was a member of congress is the access you got you know when you write a very big check they're going to take the time to talk to you and that's not anything necessarily improper but most americans don't have the money to get that kind of access and and i think you know lynn when there are limits on how much money is given that you know makes it harder for someone to stand out now in the case of a mill going to give a lot of money to him and his campaign he also gave to several other big democratic committees that the mint is involved with and then with the super pac to nations that's a way for him to really stand out and that donation that some of those dollar donation from his clinic definitely does stand out god we're talking in a post citizens united era and there's a lot of scrutiny now you know is it right corporations is money by politics is this another example of that donors and their influence on paul. i think it's another example of opportunities for things to go wrong and i mean you know there are definitely people who give lots of money just because they're supportive ideologically just because they like the person just because they're friends no

going is out of a long time friendship with windows he said as much so i mean there are people who do give money like that but i think that the more opportunities are to give money in unlimited amounts like we are in this person's united world the more opportunity there are for accusations the propriety of actual impropriety interesting well really appreciate you weighing in on their ass that was a reporter for a center for responsive politics. well imagine you're going on a hike taking in the scenery when you notice a helicopter following you until it stops and parks are right in front of you and that's exactly what a woman in california says happened and she called the whole ordeal on camera. circled me. when you were encircled bobbie really low. just over there. through landing or work. as you can see the helicopter was hovering above the desert in san bernadino the hiker that fell that captured this video here of tell

it the chopper was getting too close for comfort and turns out her gut feeling was right. that helicopter as you can see actually lands in front of her the officer comes out and confronts her ask her what she's doing and demands for aidid these are carrying one so she runs a background check on her and then tries to search her but the hiker resists saying she does not consent to a search all the woman was cleared she says she wasn't doing anything suspicious no word from the san bernardino police on what they were looking for or why the officer issued use a helicopter to monitor and stop the woman and we're going to leave it off there for tonight but for more on the stories we covered check out our you tube channel you tube dot com slash r t america and our website our teeth dot com slash usa and you can follow me on twitter alison wall for now have a great night.